Franciscan University of Steubenville

History Program

The rise and fall of empires.

Inventions and philosophies that have altered the human experience.

Study the motives and actions that have rippled through the ages and produced the present day.

Truth is at once more strange, more grand, and more wonderful, than fiction. Far from merely memorizing names, dates, and the order of events, the study of history is the study of kings and paupers, men and women, children and soldiers. It is the inquiry into their joys, their sorrows, their triumphs, and their struggles. It investigates what and why they loved, hated, feared, built, plotted, admired, destroyed, and left to posterity.

Students of history are detectives. Facts and events, stories and evidence, come to us from the ages, but the proper context in which to understand all these bits of data easily eludes us. Historians must have the interest and ability to discover as yet unrealized pieces of the puzzle, piece together what happened, and why. Accurate and complete accounts help us better to understand the present condition of humanity, and perhaps to avoid philosophies and systems that have been tried and found sorely lacking.

History majors at Franciscan University learn from world-class historians whose breadth of historical expertise spans from the cradle of civilization to post-modern electoral politics. They ably open up the world of historical inquiry, firmly rooted in the Catholic tradition, recognizing the Incarnation as the central fact of history. Every moment, every movement, and every person studied is seen in that eternal light.

The history major also requires courses in economics and a foreign language, and easily affords students the opportunity to double major.

Enter the history program. Acquire a deep understanding of the world—and humanity’s adventure within it. Be awed by God’s providential activity. And learn how to bring the insights of the ages into today’s consciousness.

No one can say senior political science major Dan Woltornist
doesn’t come by his conservative political philosophy honestly.

The grandson of not one, but two
Russian immigrants who separately fled the Soviet Union in the 1940s, the New
Jersey native grew up hearing tales of the trials his grandparents and
great-grandparents endured under the Communist regime, and of their near
escapes from Stalin’s secret police

Read more alumni outcomes ›
Edward Bardella’s love for history started when his grandfather, who served in the United States Army, told him stories of World War II. Bardella graduated from Franciscan University with a bachelor’s degree in history in 2015.

Second Semester

ABOUT FRANCISCAN UNIVERSITY

Franciscan University of Steubenville is no ordinary university, and a Franciscan education is no ordinary education. Rather, it's an education as rigorous and demanding as it is faithful--an education that challenges you intellectually, forms you professionally, and feeds you spiritually.